A dye image is formed by exposing a light-sensitive silver halide photographic material, followed by color developing, and the dye image obtained is desired to have high fastness to light, heat and humidity. The fastness of a dye image is affected by various factors, and is known to greatly depend on the properties of a dye-forming coupler which forms a dye by reacting with a color developing agent, and of a high boiling organic solvent used for dissolving the dye-forming coupler. However, when the dye-forming coupler is selected, not only it is important for a dye to have the fastness, but also it is essential for the dye to have a desired absorption characteristic for the purpose of color reproduction, and moreover it is desired to have good color development efficiency and good stability in a solvent. Thus, the scope of the selection can not be limitless. For this reason, there is a limit in improving the fastness by selecting the dye-forming coupler. On the other hand, the high boiling solvent used for dissolving the coupler may have important influence to the fastness of a dye, and Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication) No. 205447/1985 discloses that the fastness can be improved by using a high boiling solvent having a given dielectric constant.
However, it was revealed that although the fastness of a dye to be formed may be improved by using the high boiling organic solvent disclosed in the above publication, the color development performance of the dye-forming coupler dissolved therein tends to be lowered.
On the other hand, recent years, in the present photographic field, what have been sought after are light-sensitive silver halide photographic materials that can practice rapid processing, may have high image quality and yet superior processing stability, and can be of low cost. Particularly sought after are light-sensitive silver halide photographic materials that can be processed rapidly.
Namely, it is practiced to continuously process light-sensitive silver halide photographic materials usually in an automatic processing machine installed in every photofinishing laboratory. However, as a part of improvement in services to users, it is desired to finish processing and return products to users in the day the development orders were received, and, nowadays, it is further desired even to return products in several hours after receipt of orders, whereby there is increasing necessity for the rapid processing. Development of the rapid processing is also hastened because a shortened processing time may bring about increase in the production efficiency and a cost decrease may be thereby made possible.
To achieve the rapid processing, there have been made approaches from two aspects, i.e., a light-sensitive material and a processing solution. In respect of the color developing processing, it has been attempted to make higher the temperature, pH and concentration of a color developing agent, and it is also known to add additives such as development accelerators. The above development accelerators may include 1-phenyl-3-pyrazolidone disclosed in British Pat. No. 811,185, N-methyl-p-aminophenol disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,417,514, N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication) No. 15554/1975, etc. The method using these, however, can achieve no sufficient rapidness, and may be often accompanied with deterioration of performance such as increase in fog.
On the other hand, the shape, size and composition of silver halide grains of a silver halide emulsion used in the light-sensitive material are known to greatly affect the development speed and so forth. In particular, it is found that the halogen composition may greatly affect the same and a very remarkably high development speed can be shown when a chloride-rich silver halide is used.
When, in general, the light-sensitive silver halide photographic materials are processed in a photofinishing laboratory over a long period of time while replenishing a replenishing solution, there is also a problem that the variation of photographic characteristics (in particular, the gradation variation) may be brought about by the change in the composition of a processing solution. This problem is becoming large with an increasing tendency of the low replenishing of the processing solution. Especially, it is nearly impossible to perfectly prevent a bleach-fixing solution from unintentionally mixing in a developing solution, even if the rate of replenishing the replenishing solution is strictly set, the evaporation is prevented, and nothing is made to be eluted from a light-sensitive material. Particularly in a roller conveyance type automatic processing machine, the state of things is such that there is caused a remarkable difference in the amount of unintentional mixing of the bleach-fixing solution into the developing solution, depending on the quantity of processing and the manner of the squeegeeing, and, in the event that the rate of replenishing the replenishing solution is lowered, the rotation speed of the replenishing solution is lowered to cause the further difference in the rate of the unintentional mixing.
The variation of photographic performances (in most cases, fog increase and gradation variation) caused by such unintentional mixing of a bleach-fixing solution may be a great obstacle to stable and good color reproduction and gradation reproduction. Since, for the reasons mentioned above, it is very difficult to prevent the unintentional mixing itself of the bleach-fixing solution, preferred is that the variation of photographic performances is small even if the bleach-fixing solution is unintentionally mixed, in other words, that the so-called BF contamination resistance is good.
Also, the pH value of a color developing solution may vary because of excessiveness or insufficiency of the amount for the replenishment of a replenishing solution.
In general, the pH of a color developing solution is so closely related with the color development activity that the photographic performances (sensitivity, gradation and fog) may vary with the pH variation of the color development solution to impair the stability of the photographic performances. Therefore, preferred is that the variation of photographic performances is small against the pH change also, in other words, that the so-called pH variation resistance is good.
In order to newly produce a light-sensitive silver halide photographic material that may have a good rapid processing performance and processing stability and also may achieve excellent dye-image preservation, it was tried to use the high boiling solvent disclosed in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 205447/1985 and the above chloride-rich silver halide emulsion in simple combination, but it was found that although excellent preservation of a dye-image can be achieved, there are disadvantages such that the color development performance is unexpectedly poor, fog is too high, and the processing stability is short.
Accordingly, since in the prior arts, none of the techniques is sufficient for newly producing the light-sensitive silver halide photographic material that may have good rapid processing performance and processing stability and also may achieve excellent dye-image preservation, a new technique that can solve the above problems has been sought after.
In view of the foregoing, the present inventors, as a result of intensive studies, have used a gold compound and an organic compound having particular structure in combination in the above system comprising the combination of the particular high boiling solvent and the chloride-rich silver halide emulsion, whereby it was possible to obtain the effect that could not be expected from any prior arts, and, as a result, they have found a technique to newly produce a light-sensitive silver halide photographic material excellent in the dye image preservation, rapid processing performance and processing stability, that has been impossible to obtain in any prior arts. The present invention has thus been accomplished.